It’s my pleasure to nominate Mike Duhacek for the Police Hero Honour Roll Award. Mike founded Help Me Bury Cancer in December 2012. He has dedicated his life to helping others and has inspired countless people within the international community to know that any mountain can be moved and that there’s no such word as quit.
Mike has spoken to tens of thousands of students and has motivated them to do their best in any situation. He has had children give him their piggy banks, he’s been told some students are pursuing being a doctor to find a cure and has been interviewed by students for their class projects. The future generation isn’t only inspired, they’ve provided him keepsakes over the years and have told him they will focus on creating their own initiative to make a difference in society.
Mike has comforted children who have cancer, children who have lost their parents and parents who’ve lost their children to this terrible disease. He shows them all such compassion and kindness. His goal is to always show them that we’re all on one team and there’s always people fighting for them. Mike has been the Canadian Ambassador to Cops for Cancer on multiple occasions and is always truly honoured to support childhood cancer.
There’s so many things that have been achieved by Help Me Bury Cancer such as raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer research and providing a tremendous amount of hope along the way. Mike also provides cancer awareness on the world stage, but what stands out is the time and effort he puts into his initiative day after day for the last 12 years. All of this while being a loving husband and father of three. He has been a dedicated, proud and full time civilian member of the Halton Regional Police Service for the past 26 years. Mike was added to the Caring Canadian ranks in 2014 and has also been awarded multiple national honours over the years.
The wow factor for me is that he sacrifices his own body for the ones he’s supporting. He has dragged a 125lb cancer sled across Ontario over 918kms in the middle of winter and dedicated the walk to his mom. He took over 10 steps for the over 75,000 Canadians that would die from cancer that year. He then pulled a 212 pound snowmobile sled with the word cancer on it carved from a Canadian pine tree from Georgian Bay to Lake Ontario to again connect with and support the thousands of roadside supporters along the way. He ran 31 half marathons in 31 days while leading a moment event around Canada which was named the Movement Challenge to support children with cancer. He’s completed marathons and ultra-marathons, ran head shave events, wrote a book with profits going back to the cancer society and has a podcast called The Help Me Bury Cancer Initiative - where perseverance and compassion collide which supports the Cancer Community in Canada and well beyond.
On Mikes website his mission statement reads: ‘To offer respect and kindness, displaying humility while inspiring with perseverance, compassion, a little humour, and a touch of style’ well, a spot on statement in my opinion.
Mike is tireless with his created movement that has changed the lives of so many. He’s a humble man with a big heart that truly cares about the ones he’s fighting for and he shows no signs of slowing down.
One person can change the world by giving people hope and Mike wants to be one that puts more into the world than he takes.
